they masquerade their feelings in the summer heat
by fallendrastic
Summary: Our lives are like skyscrapers. / Various pairings, set in a carnival on Tori's birthday. Oneshot.


**a/n: This is... different. I mean, I like it, I guess. The no-caps title and the names of the characters is a stylistic choice, not a grammatical error. So thanks, though, for reading, it's just a fanfiction with various pairings from Victorious and I love every single one of them. Quote about skyscrapers belongs to Jonathan Safran Foer from his book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and I don't own Jonathan, his quote or his book. I also don't own Victorious.**

* * *

_&._

Jade holds the ice-cream near her lips, at the middle of the carnival Tori requested to go to for her birthday, which is today, as she watches Tori and André from below. Tori screams on the roller coaster and as André laughs at her hilarious expression, placing his arms around his shoulder and as her cheeks touch his a little as she leans in. They're way too close for the term "Just Friends" – Tori's smiling a little as they take a dip and André has this huge grin on his lips. And Beck just nudges her shoulder and hands her the yellow flower and black pair of industrial scissors.

"Yes?" Jade asks sharply, tearing her eyes away from the happy pair and onto Beck. He hands her the flower and scissors, and she hands him her ice-cream and begins snipping away every bit of the formerly beautiful and pleasant-looking flower. Beck sighs, fooling around with the melting ice-cream as he digs the plastic spoon into the creamy delight and nudges Jade again. She turns around, little bright-as-the-sun yellow petals dropping to the ground as she moves.

Beck puts the spoon near her lips. "Here," He says, pushing the spoon into her open mouth. She takes back the tiny cup of ice-cream and enjoys the peach flavor which dances on her tongue. "Tell the two lovebirds to hurry up," Jade says in between scoops, the sun that was previously shining on top of them setting into the field as the street lamps around the path of the carnival begin to light up. "I wanna go on other rides," Jade says.

"Like the Haunted House of Doom?" Beck asks, and Jade snickers at the name as she rolls her deep-as-the-sky blue eyes.

"Lame name," She sneers, but ends up going on the ride anyway. Beck shrieks a little, and even Jade is a little scared, but mostly appeased. Something about vampires and ghosts and creatures appeal to her, and she likes them. Beck wonders whether or not she's relatively sane, sometimes, and when she _laughs _when the zombie arrives out of nowhere and screams in her pale face (even Beck takes a instinctive step back) he starts to really question her sanity.

"Scared?" Jade asks smugly, a smirk on her lips as they exit the room. Beck trembles and shakes a little, but shakes his head and wiggles all of the fear out of him and manages a smile, pretending to be almost amused by the thought.

"No way," Beck protests, and the tiny tremble in his voice convinces her otherwise. Others would have ignored it, believed him and moved on, and they wouldn't have heard it anyways. But Jade did - and she knows him like the back of her hand, and she knows that he knows that too. "Sure," She says sarcastically, making a U-turn and walking back to the fabric and blue and white curtains.

"Where are you going?" Beck asks, and Jade turns around and gives him the biggest smirk he's ever seen her wear.

"Back to the Haunted House, since you aren't scared." Jade says knowingly, turning on her heel and walking in.

Beck grunts, and follows her – no matter where she goes, no matter what she does, he's always right behind her and ready to follow her.

_&._

Tori opens her eyes, the almost-setting sun entering her pupils. She screams as the roller coaster falls down, and feels a pair of hands removing hers from blocking her eyes and lifting them up in the warm summer air. Tori growls under her breath as André laughs, and as the roller coaster takes an unexpected turn, she shifts left and right and André smiles. She yells his name, telling him to stop even though that's the last thing she wants him to do.

Tori breaths in his scent and leans into him, and André has a goofy grin on his face as the wind blows through his hair. Tori screams and shakes and squeezes her eyes tight, the tall ferris wheels and amusement rides are so close to her she can taste it, and she keeps visualizing crashing into them and falling down, but André's telling her, "Relax, Birthday Girl, it's not that bad." And she's actually starting to believe him (the things he can make her do, like, riding on an insane roller coaster for example).

"You're insane!" Tori screams as they take another unexpected turn, and André laughs again, but then the waterfall starts coming into action and Tori admires its beauty for a while, until _André _starts screaming, and then it's her turn to laugh at his expression. They go up and down and left and right and _oh gosh, it doesn't seem to end_. But then the ride finally stops and Tori leaves smiling, and André leaves shaking.

Tori begins cracking jokes and he protests defensively and she playfully pushes his arm. She turns to him, really looks at him, with those really dark brown eyes of hers (they're so brown they're almost black) and he stares at her and gives her his signature smile. André wins Tori a teddy bear, and she pulls its ear constantly and she then notices Beck and Jade by the sides, their fingers intertwined and lips in sync.

She envies them a little, and wishes that she could have someone to hold her hand and tell her she's beautiful. But as André holds her a little close, and as they joke and talk and talk and laugh about nothing, she kind of thinks she already has what she needs.

"Hey," Tori tells André suddenly, a sly smirk on her lips. "Race ya to the ferris wheel."

"You're _so _on," He accepts, and she's already turning on her heel and running to the colorful wheel spinning carelessly in the warm air.

She wonders if they'll ever be more than this along the way.

_&._

Trina hates it whenever she reads a novel and the leading girl freaks out over the leading guy's scent.

But as the mix of Robbie's cologne and his natural scent (which is quite pleasant, actually) it invades her nostrils and causes her to feel intoxicated and her insides are basically ripping apart, and as her flapping heartbeat starts beating like a damned hummingbird excessively flapping its wings in her chest over and over aching to burst out and fly, she actually gets it and the rush she once thought was pointless, unnecessary and sometimes just plain stupid.

Trina pricks her fingers and stares at the fountain blue nail polish shining at the brisk of sunset, the sky an appealing warm orange and rays of sunshine floating above her head, various colors above her. "You have some ice-cream at the corner of your chin." Robbie says and Trina swaps out her pink compact immediately, eyeballing the spot and carefully using a napkin to remove it.

"Thanks, Tubby. I knew you were good for something," Trina says, admiring her features and reflection from her compact as the ferris wheel takes another spin, little people below her, their legs dangling simultaneously as the ferris wheel begins to move faster and faster. It's the closest thing to a date Trina and Robbie would ever have, since Trina barely even lets Robbie _look _at her in public. And Robbie can't even tell any of his AV buddies about their newfound romance which he doesn't dare to call love, because he doesn't know what it is exactly.

"Hey," Trina says suddenly as the ferris wheel's speed increases a little, turning to Robbie. "You have ice-cream on your lips."

"Huh? I–" Before he can even finish his sentence, Trina kisses him in the brisk of sunset, under the warm weather and above the people on the ground which are unable to see what exactly is going on. Robbie responds to the kiss, quickly and enthusiastically, but she pulls apart just in the midst of time, and presses her lips together and avoids his lingering gaze. And, with a smug smile on her face, she says smugly, "I got it."

_&._

Some guys give their girlfriends flowers to put in their hair or vases. Beck Oliver gives Jade West flowers to cut into pieces and wave them into crowns before cutting them again. Beck just watches as the industrial scissors snip away the pretty pieces of fiery red roses, or fragile white lilies, and sometimes beautiful, sunshine yellow tulips.

They fall, fall, and fall to the ground. And when Jade asks Beck to give her a teddy bear, she snips its fur away.

"You're terrible." Beck says as he eyes the ripped fur and the teddy bear in horror, and Jade holds the scissors beside her pale face and raise an eyebrow nonchalantly.

"I know," She says in monotone, a rare, kind of evil and creepy, smile finds its way to her lips.

&.

Cat sticks her plastic spoon in her strawberry ice-cream and licks the frosting of little tiny piece of chocolate cake André gets her, and eyes the other cake he gets Tori. It's nicer, _prettier_, and has cute little decorations decorated all over the cake – and it's vanilla, Tori's favorite flavor. He didn't even bother to remember Cat likes strawberry and vanilla cakes, not chocolate ones with tiny chocolate chips on the side poking out.

She, however, takes it with a smile and scoops up the ice-cream and watches from afar as Tori offers André a piece of her cake, and he takes his spoon out and eats the side and they laugh at some joke he cracks about cakes. Cat fiddles with her dyed red hair, crossing her arms as jealousy flows through her. She puts her spoon down, and as Tori and André talk about how the race and ride on the ferris wheel and how one of the instructors mess up her lines and say something stupid and completely hilarious was just _so _funny, and she doubts they even remember her existence.

"Hey, Little Red!" André calls from the other side, waving his hand in the air as Cat perks up and she sits between Tori and André, and she starts rambling and talking about random stuff and Tori and André laugh simultaneously at something she says, and they talk and joke and Beck and Jade and Trina and Robbie just stand at the other side, engrossed in their own separate conversations. Cat pricks her nails and blows bubbles in her hot chocolate, pretending not to care.

&.

"Will we ever be a real couple?" Robbie asks on one of the loopy rides, and Trina's going back and forth and her hair's getting stuck onto her lip-gloss and she pretends to have missed Robbie's comment, because even she doesn't know the answer. She shrugs, and the moonlight shines down on her hair and her eyes sparkle and oh gosh - she's freaking dazzling.

And yet, Robbie has to keep a distance, and she only lets him kiss her in private, their fingers intertwine and she kisses him whenever no one's looking, and when they're in school she pretends to forget his name and keeps a distance. It's all pretend, pretend, pretend because she's so self-absorbed and selfish and thinking only about herself. But as Trina looks at Robbie, eyes glimmering and closing the distance between them - up in the air, where the people on the Earth are unable to see them together, he tells himself it's kind of worth it.

&.

"Who wants to sing some karaoke?" One of the entertainers ask from the stage in the middle of the carnival, and there's a large group of people crowding around him and cheers and claps are heard and Tori just asks André to sing with her and her eyes are filled with excitement and hope and André caves in._ Just. Like. That._

"You're the best friend ever!" Tori says, and the next thing Cat knows is that Tori and André grab the microphone and keyboard (it's always Tori with her impressive vocals singing backup and André with his keyboard and silky-smooth voice singing and it's forever_ André & Tori_ and _Tori & André_.) and they smile and André's eyes always travel to Tori as they sing, and even though Cat can't look at them anymore, she can hear the smile in his voice and the giggle in Tori's.

And when Tori and André finish, they get a standing ovation and people murmur about how well their voices blend together and how adorable they look. Cat folds her arms, and takes another spoonful of her ice-cream. Not strawberry and vanilla like she likes, but chocolate and marshmallows. And guess what, she just found out André gets Tori a stuffed teddy bear which is white and got her a sparkly bracelet in the words of _Make It Shine _for her birthday.

And as the group gathers around and start walking around together, singing Tori Happy Birthday in her honor (_happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..._), Cat forces a smile and claps along with the others as Tori attacks André with an affectionate hug (they're _always _hugging) when he gives her his birthday present and as he hugs her back, Cat then coughs up a laugh and smiles with the others.

André gets Tori a sparkly bracelet with the silver words _Make It Shine_ dangling at the end of the bracelet for her birthday, and he got Cat bag of marshmallows and a bagel for hers.

_&._

Beck buys Jade a pair of scissors. Industrial, jet-black, snippy, sharp and Jade admires it for a moment. "Going into the collection," She says, dropping the pair of scissors into her bag and walking in between the crowd. He buys her cotton candy, and she kisses him beneath the ferris wheel and as the night lights and colorful, attractive ferris wheel lights shine down at them, she wraps her arms around his neck and he pulls her closer.

_I love you_, Jade breaths against his lips.

_I love you_, _too_. Beck breaths, and damn does he mean it.

&.

Tori buys André French fries and a hamburger as a thank-you for the wonderful birthday present. He eats the burger and shares the French fries with her, and they sit next to each other, electricity brimming through each other as their sides and hands brush against each other and they throw fries in their mouths.

Cat watches from a distance, and the night dawns upon them and the wind comes in contact with Tori's skin and André gives her his jacket. "Thanks," Tori says gratefully, and André smiles.

&.

They all leave the carnival with wondering thoughts, some with goofy smiles and sweet memories in their heads, some with glum looks on their faces, trying in vain to change the unchangeable. They never learn, do they?

&.

_our lives are like skyscrapers, __the smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped._


End file.
